


Sweet Talkin’ Love of Mine

by rhimes_or_shotts



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Karaoke, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 16:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4883002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhimes_or_shotts/pseuds/rhimes_or_shotts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A karaoke meet-cute between Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet Talkin’ Love of Mine

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a mash-up of Sweet Child O’ Mine and Son of a Preacher Man

Karaoke was not a thing that Clarke Griffin thought she would be doing on a regular basis. But, after starting her PhD in Global Health at Arizona State, dating a guy in the aerospace engineering program only to find out that he was also dating a girl in his program who was doing a Fulbright in Korea, dumping said guy and befriending his girlfriend when she returned to campus, she starts going to karaoke on a regular basis with her new friend Raven and a small group of other grad students that have become her new family. 

They’ve found a bar called Grounders but the sign outside just reads “The Bar” so that’s what they actually call it. There’s a trim, medium-build black guy in a beanie named Miller who runs karaoke every Saturday night even though it seems like he thinks it’s the worst job in the world. But they’ve befriended him and the regular Saturday night bartender, a gorgeous light-skinned brunette named Octavia.

Their regular karaoke group always includes herself and Raven and usually includes Monty and Jasper, childhood friends, the former of whom is also in Raven’s program while the other is getting a Master’s in sustainability. Sometimes a few other students from their programs join as well. Recently, a guy named Wick, another engineering student that Clarke is pretty sure has a thing for Raven, has been joining them a lot. And her friend Harper who is also working on her PhD in Global Health has been coming out a lot too.

They’ve established a routine for Saturday nights. They sign up for some easy classic hits as group numbers for early in the evening when they aren’t tipsy enough to do solos yet. But later in the evening, she and Raven, and usually a few of the others, start signing up for songs on their own. Rarely does a Saturday go by that Clarke doesn’t sign up to sing Sweet Child O’ Mine sometime late in the evening.

Which is why, on this particular Saturday, she’s surprised to hear the familiar opening chord progression before she’s put in her request. At first she thinks that it’s just that Miller knows them so well at this point and she starts to stand up to head up to the stage. But then she sees that Miller has handed the mic to some guy with bronzed skin, broad shoulders, and dark black curls. She does a double take, not because of how attractive the guy is, though she notices of course, but because how dare this man sing her song.

It’s been a rough week and Clarke has drunk a little bit more than she normally does and she has few inhibitions left. And she can’t just let this stranger sing her song. So she stalks her way over to the stage and joins him. There’s such a long opening to the song that she makes it there before the lyrics start. To his credit, the new guy doesn’t seem put off by her joining him on stage and just smirks at her as he indicates for Miller to hand her the second mic.

They rock the song and when it’s over, he introduces himself and offers to buy her a drink. He introduces his friend, a slim white guy with a beaky nose, brown shaggy hair, and a permanent grimace on his face. She invites them to sit with her friends and they do and over the course of the evening she learns that he’s also in grad school, pursuing his PhD in history. They’re both signed up for a few more songs but don’t go up together again until the end of the evening when she and Raven sing Son of a Preacher Man and she pulls him up on stage with her and grinds against him.

She’s pretty drunk at that point. Luckily, she lives within walking distance of The Bar, in the same apartment complex as Monty and Jasper, and Raven is crashing on her couch that night so they all stumble home when the bar closes. Raven spends the entire walk back ranting about how she didn’t know that grinding to Son of a Preacher Man was a thing and that the song has been ruined for her for life.

Clarke wakes up the next morning and realizes that not only did she not get the hot guy’s number, but that she can’t even remember his name. And none of her friends are any help either because apparently she had just been referring to him as the hot history dude all night, even to his face. She’s a bit mortified by learning that but she was drunk and it didn’t seem like he must have minded, though, again, she didn’t get his number so maybe he isn’t into drunk girls calling him hot, which is weird because she thinks that’s a thing most straight men would be into.

She’s still interested though and she remembers that she was calling him ‘hot history dude’ because he was getting his PhD in history so she decides to check out the history department’s website to see if she can figure out his name. But the history department must really be stuck in the past because while they have a list of all their grad students, they don’t have any pictures or more detailed profiles and none of the names jog her memory.

She’s a little sad that this might be where this story ends because she may not remember his name but she does remember that he had amazing arms and freckles across his face and she was really interested in finding out more about what he looks like without his clothes on.

She’s got a lot of work to do for her program though so she doesn’t dwell on it. And the next Saturday rolls around so of course, she and her friends are heading back to The Bar. She sees him soon after they enter, talking to Octavia, and his face brightens when he sees her and he calls out her name across the bar. Shit, she thinks, of course he remembers her name. Now she can’t just come out and tell him she doesn’t remember his, she needs stealth tactics.

So she pulls Raven over to the bar with her and says “Hey, did you meet Raven last week?” She’s hoping that he’ll say either yes or no and then repeat his name but nope, he just says “Yeah” and reaches out to shake Raven’s hand. Raven is usually a good wingwoman and knows that this is where she is supposed to ask for his name but Wick is already distracting her and she just shakes hot history dude’s hand and turns away.

So it’s just him and Clarke at the bar and he starts up a conversation and it would be even more awkward to interrupt him and ask for his name. So she sits and flirts with him for awhile. She realizes that perhaps she can just ask for his number and tell him to program it into her phone for her and then he’ll have to type his name in. So after she, Raven, Jasper, and Monty sing Spice Up Your Life, she returns to her seat next to him at the bar and casually asks for his number. He smirks at her when she gives ‘future karaoke needs’ as her reasoning for asking for his number. She hands him her phone and tells him to just program it in but when he hands it back to her, it just has his number and the name section is blank. His next song selection starts playing so he gets up and heads to the stage.

Clarke just drops her head to the bar top and groans.

“What’s wrong?” Octavia asks her.

Clarke looks up at her and thinks for a second. Hot history dude has had a couple of conversations with Octavia so maybe she knows his name. And she’s probably not going to tell him that Clarke can’t remember his name. So she bites the bullet and says “I can’t remember hot history dude’s name.”

Octavia lets out a bark of laughter. “His name’s Bellamy. But I think he’d probably prefer you continuing to call him ‘hot history dude.’”

“Really, do you know him well?” Clarke asks, thinking that perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to ask Octavia for help.

“You could say that. He’s my brother.”

Clarke drops her head to the bartop again. “There’s probably no way that I can convince you not to tell him this, is there?” she asks.

“Nope, this is hilarious for me.” Octavia says. “But don’t worry, I don’t think this is going to stop him from being interested. He’s been talking about you all week.”

“Yeah?” Clarke asks, picking her head off the counter and giving Octavia a hopeful look.

“Yeah. He’s yours for the taking.” Octavia says.

Bellamy comes back to the counter then and Octavia just gives them a knowing look before heading down to help a customer at the other end of the bar. Clarke spends the rest of the night talking to Bellamy and the next day, she texts him to ask him if he wants to get coffee on campus sometime during the week. He responds in the affirmative almost immediately.

And so their first date is to get coffee and their second is dinner before karaoke night and then they sort of stop doing official dates because they’re always just together. When they move in together the next year, Raven says that she’s going to get a karaoke machine for their wedding and sing Song of a Preacher Man for them. When they do get married several years later, the DJ announces that he’s about to play a specific song request from the maid of honor. It’s an absolutely horrific mash-up of Sweet Child of Mine and Son of a Preacher Man. They still dance to it, in a way not wholly appropriate to their wedding, but as Bellamy points out, it’s their wedding and they can do whatever the hell they want.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr at Ottersandotherstuff


End file.
